West Ham v AZ Alkmaar: The Dutch Moneyball team chasing Europa Conference victory

AZ Alkmaar beat Anderlecht to reach the Europa Conference League semi-final

West Ham's push for a first European final in 47 years is about to come up against Mr Moneyball himself.

AZ Alkmaar face the Hammers in the first leg of their Europa Conference League semi-final on Thursday. And according to Billy Beane, the Dutch side are "one of the best untold stories in sports".

Beane - the real-life inspiration for Brad Pitt's character in the movie Moneyball - should know. He has an association with AZ going back nearly a decade.

He pioneered the use of statistical data to turn around the fortunes of Major League Baseball team Oakland Athletics, with his methods since applied to other teams in both baseball and football.

In 2020, he bought a 5% stake in AZ, having acted as an adviser to them for the previous five years.

And earlier this year, he gave a fascinating insight into both his methods and his thoughts about AZ Alkmaar in a speech to the European Clubs' Association general assembly in Budapest.

'I'm proud to be associated with them'

Beane's connection to AZ comes through Robert Eenhoorn, a Dutchman who played four seasons in Major League Baseball. The pair became friends through the baseball circuit and when Eenhoorn was appointed general director of AZ in 2014, he asked Beane to help.

"I am proud to be associated with them," said Beane.

"The process and consistency they have had is one of the best untold stories in sports. I am biased but it is incredible. It is not only a great football story, it is a great business story."

AZ are used to operating on a lower budget - and with a smaller infrastructure - than their rivals, both at home and in Europe.

Take Thursday's opponents as an example. To the summer of 2021, West Ham's total revenue was £192.1m, compared to AZ's £19m (21.08m euros). West Ham's wage bill was £128.45m, compared to AZ's £14.13m (16.2m euros). London Stadium has a 62,500 capacity compared to AZ's AFAS Stadium, which holds 19,500.

Domestically, eight Dutch clubs have a bigger ground than AZ, who are dwarfed by Ajax, PSV and Feyenoord.

Yet with three games of the domestic campaign remaining, AZ are well placed to secure their fifth top-four Eredivisie finish in six seasons. They need four points to guarantee European football once more.

To Beane, it shows that the data analysis methods he used in baseball were transferrable to other sports - something that was proved when he answered Eenhoorn's call.

"The first thing Robert did was to stop losing money," he said. "Unfortunately, the first year is painful because you are selling your best players to make up for the poor decisions made by people who were there before you.

"The little money he did have, he went out and bought two players from the second division that were completely data driven. One was Vincent Janssen, the other was Alireza Jahanbakhsh."

The pair were brought in for less than £1m. Janssen was later sold to Tottenham, Jahanbakhsh to Brighton, for a combined £33m.

'The role of scouts will be redefined'

Beane first put his Moneyball concept into practice with the Oakland Athletics baseball team.

In football, expected goals have now become a commonplace assessment of a team's performance, in addition to completed passes in the final third and standard shots on and off target.

Yet Beane is clear that data is not everything. He rejects the notion it will drive traditional scouting out of the game.

"If you think of a scout in any sport, you are giving them an impossible job," he said.

"We are going to redefine them. Decision-making in business is all driven by information. There is information I can't get from data. I can't find out what kind of team-mate he is. I can't find out if he stays out all night, what kind of parents he has, what kind of student he was.

"I want scouts to give me information that I can't get. You can build that into your model."

Beane hoping for Brighton and Brentford breakthroughs

Brighton and Brentford are two examples of Premier League clubs who have added a strong data element to their recruitment policy and are getting the benefits with performances far above their perceived standing in the game.

However, Beane feels it will take one of those clubs to shake up the elite for a true understanding of what data analysis can provide takes hold across the game.

"The challenge isn't getting the data, it is executing it," he said.

"With data, you might find a 5ft 7in guy, who is undervalued because of his size. You can see he is not 6ft 4in and your eyes stop you no matter what the data says.

"Brentford doesn't win anything. But think of where they were to where they are now and what they are up against. Usually people talk about clubs having a great youth programme. They don't even have a youth programme.

"When one of those clubs starts pushing the top four, five, six, people will change very quickly."